Digitising manufacturing processes brings many benefits including operational savings, improved flexibility and new revenue streams, but traditional applications such as Manufacturing Execution Systems are often complex and difficult to modernise.

Conversely, applications hosted in the cloud can drive digital innovation, but also lead to data protection, cost and latency issues.

By hosting both old and new applications on one single platform in factory premises, the Express App Platform – Manufacturing eases the transformation and dramatically reduces the need for separate hosting of legacy and bespoke applications.

“Traditional manufacturing applications support a stable, yet rigid automation of production processes”, says Raj Thakur, HPE South Pacific Hybrid IT Vice President & General Manager.

“The Express App Platform – Manufacturing helps customers integrate smart-factory applications into their operations to create an adaptable factory without affecting the current foundation of their ongoing business.”

Deploy manufacturing applications with only six clicks

Express App Platform – Manufacturing allows customers to deploy applications from the Cloud28+ catalogue with only six clicks via a seamlessly automated process.

Based on hyper-converged infrastructure HPE SimpliVity 380, the new platform features the Express App Platform Intelligent Agent which securely downloads selected applications from the Cloud28+ catalogue and leverages Docker container technology managed by Kubernetes to automatically deploy the application in the Express App Platform environment on the factory floor.

During operation, built-in backup and disaster recovery ensures the highest levels of data integrity and availability.

Agile automation with sensor-data intelligence

Express App Platform – Manufacturing is optimised to host applications that support a factory and its productions lines, including Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) applications like Manufacturing Execution Systems or Advanced Planning and Scheduling, as well as IoT applications.

Running those applications directly on the factory floor allows manufacturers to better integrate operations management with machine control systems to leverage IoT sensor-data intelligence for agile automation of production processes.

Express App Platform – Manufacturing can be used in conjunction with HPE Edgeline IoT Systems which provide real-time sensor data acquisition, analytics and control, operated close to the production lines to deliver faster insights and agility.

The right expertise for digital factory transformation

HPE’s services organisation, HPE Pointnext, offers a set of advisory, professional and operational services for the Express App Platform – Manufacturing, including:

· HPE Flexible Capacity for Express App Platform – offers an on-demand capacity and a pay-as-you-go consumption model, giving customers the ability to scale up and scale down capacity as needed and to pay only pay for what they consume, providing cloud speed and economics on premises, at or below the cost of public clouds.